Scrapbook
by itsokaytobeafraid
Summary: The feisty brunette reached under the bed for it. Instead, her hand hit something dusty and hard. Curious, she pulled it out from under her bed and saw that it was a book. Or to be more specific, a scrapbook.


**So, I got this idea when I was writing my Grace/Jerry One-shot called "Matchmaker". In Kickin' It, you don't really see much off Grace and Kim's friendship, but to me, it seems kind of like their frenemies. This one-shot is to explore deeper into their friendship.**

**Here it goes…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kickin' It (or any other copyrighted companies mentioned or famous stars)! **

Grace sighed as she ran her fingers through her brunette locks of hair. Where were her cheer bows? The OCD part of her was freaking out. She couldn't have misplaced them. She just couldn't have! There was a football game in 2 hours and the captain couldn't be the one to lose her things! The cheerleader looked through her dresser drawers, around the floor, and in her bags.

Nothing.

Sighing, she leaned down to check under the bed, thankful that she didn't change into the incredibly tight cheer outfit. Grace loved cheer, but she just couldn't stand the long, tedious preparation for the football games and cheer competitions. The high ponytails hurt, the eye makeup was so heavy that she wanted to close her eyes, the skirts were too short for comfort, and the shoes were really small. But, she dealt with it, because cheerleading was the one thing the teen was good at.

The feisty brunette reached under the bed, feeling around for her oversized, sparkly blue-and-yellow bow. Instead, her hand hit something dusty and hard. Curious, she pulled it out from under her bed and saw that it was a book. Or to be more specific, a scrapbook. As she glanced at the overly bedazzled pink and white cover, Grace automatically recognized it.

The big scrapbook was a sparkly hot pink, with white polka-dots. Little clear gems dotted the surface, and in the center, framed by swirly flowers decorations was a picture of her and her BFF, Kim Crawford, eating ice cream when they were 12. Both girls had ice cream messily dribbling down their chins.

"_C'mon Kim! Let's go to Abercrombie! We have to see the new skirts that they are selling there!" yelled a twelve-year Grace as she tugged her best friend's hand towards the dimly lit and loud music-blaring store._

_But the blonde girl held firm. "No, not until we get ice cream! It's nearly 100 degrees outside and we need to cool down!"_

"_Fine! But promise me that we'll go to Abercrombie later, okay?"_

"_Yeah, we will," said Kim, who was now doing the pulling, "What flavor do you want? I'm thinking that chocolate chip cookie dough sounds pretty good right now."_

With a smile on her face, Grace dusted off the scrapbook and flipped it open. The brunette stared at the first page. A floral background lay behind three pictures, all from the first day of kindergarten. A broken pink crayon sat on the left side of the page, along with a name tag that says "My name is Grace O'Doherty" and a very pretty blue flower hair clip.

"_Mommy! Don't go! Don't leave me here with those other kids! I don't know them!"_

"_Shh Gracie-kins…you'll be fine on your first day of kindergarten."_

"_But Mommy! I don't wanna go to school! I wanna stay with you!" whined the little brunette girl. _

"_It's okay. Mommy has to go now, Gracie," Grace's mom planted a kiss on her forehead, "Have a good day Gracie-kins. Bye-bye!"_

"_Bye-bye mommy," said Grace as she watched her mom leave the building._

_The five year old turned and walked into the door behind her, marked, "Ms. Collins Room". Mrs. Collins, it seems, is a very nice lady. _

"_Hello," introduced Mrs. Collins, kneeling down to match Grace's height, "What is your name?"_

"_My name is Grace."_

"_Grace O'Doherty?"_

"_Yes," said the little girl, "But you can call me Gracie!" she said proudly._

"_Okay Gracie, Here's your name tag," Mrs. Collins handed Grace a name tag with her name, "And I want you to sit next to Kimmy over there," said Mrs. Collins, "Kimmy, can you raise your hand?" A blonde little girl on the far side of the room raised her hand reluctantly. _

"_See? That's where you sit," Mrs. Collins directed as she gently pushed Grace towards her seat. _

_Grace went over to the table and next to Kimmy, "Hi, I'm Grace, but you can call me Gracie."_

"_I'm Kimberly, but you can call me Kimmy," said the other girl._

_There were two other people at the table, two boys. _

"_I'm Milton," said the red-head sitting across from Grace._

"_I'm Jerry, yo," said the boy sitting across from Kimmy._

"_What does 'yo' mean?" asked Grace, puzzled. Kimmy shrugged._

_Milton answered their question, "'Yo' is a slang word."_

"_What's a 'slang word'?" asked Kimmy, clearly confused. Milton just shook his head in defeat._

_"Today, we are going to draw a nice picture of our families," Mrs. Collins announced, passing blank papers out._

_"Please write your name, and use crayons." She said as she put a small basket of crayons on each table. _

_Milton, Kim, Jerry, and Grace all jumped to grab a crayon. __Kimmy picked a light sky blue while Milton picked green. Sadly, both Jerry and Grace wanted pink, and there was only one pink in their basket. They both grabbed it at the same time, and started fighting over it, like a mini tug-of-war._

"_I got it first!"_

"_No I did!"_

"_Nuh-uh. You didn't get the crayon first. Besides I need to use pink to draw my dress in the picture."_

"_But Gracie, I wanna use pink!"_

_The pair kept pulling the crayon between them, and suddenly, the pink crayon broke with a loud snap. Jerry held half in his hand while Grace held the other half in her hand._

_The Latino boy handed the girl he was previously fighting with his half of the crayon, "I don't want this anymore. You can have it." Then he reached into the basket for the purple._

_Grace broke down crying, "But I wanted to use the pink! Now I can't use the pink anymore!"_

_Mrs. Collins had left the room to grab more paper, so no one was there to comfort Grace. In fact, everyone was staring at the bawling brunette girl._

_Kimmy felt bad for her new friend, so she went up to her and said, "It's okay. We'll find you a new pink, Gracie."_

_Grace sniffled, "Are you sure that there are other pinks?"_

_The blonde smiled, "Yes, we'll ask Mrs. Collins when she comes back."_

_Wiping her nose on her sleeve, Grace commented, "I like your flower hair clip, Kimmy. It's really pretty."_

_Kimmy snorted, "Do you want it? It's bugging me. I hate it."_

"_Really? Are you sure?"_

"_Yep. Here you go," said Kimmy, taking the sparkly blue flower clip out of her hair and handing it to Grace._

Grace grabbed a couple of pages a turned them all, skipping to fourth grade memories. The page was all green and pink, but far less sparkly. Pictures of Grace, Kim, and other friends trying out cheerleading dotted the page. The Cheer Athletics badge sat smack-dab in the middle of the page, the red and white cheer bow sitting next to it. Their cheer team was called "The Wildcats", the brunette remembered fondly, because High School Musical was really popular then.

"_Hurry, Kim! We're gonna be late for cheer tryouts because of you're stupid karate lessons!"_

"_They are not stupid!" retorted the blonde, "I want to learn how to defend myself, and it's really cool! I'm already an orange belt!"_

_Grace glanced at her friend, who just finished changing into running shorts and a t-shirt, "Already? Didn't you start like, two weeks ago or something? That's supposed to be fast right? The order is white…yellow…green…"_

"_No, it's white, yellow, orange, which is where I'm at, then green, blue, purple, red, brown, and finally black. And yeah, it's pretty fast. Since I learned dance and cheer, I'm pretty flexible and agile, so Sensei Ty promoted me up early."_

_Grace undid her high ponytail and carefully redid it, "C'mon let's start walking. Our houses are only like five minutes away, but I don't want to be late."_

_The two walked towards the Seaford High School football field, where the Wildcats tryouts would be. Grace kept blabbing on and on about how cool it was to cheer on a team that was named after High School Musical's mascot, or how cute Zac Efron is, or how much she can't wait for HSM2. All Kim did was smile and nod, trying to tune out her girly, obsessed friend._

_When they arrived at the really, really big field Kim and Grace saw twenty other girls just like them that were trying out. The coach, who looked like a strict lady, blew her whistle, "I'm Coach Woods. Okay, so this is how these tryouts are going to work. There will be three rounds: The dance, the jumps, and the tumbling. You all got the video of the dance routine and the instruction sheet, right?" All the girls nodded._

"_Good," she said glancing at her clipboard, "We will all do the dance together as a group, and I will pick the top 15 out of the 24 girls here, to show me their jumps – a herkie, a toe-touch, and a pike. From there, I will select ten out of the 15. Finally, you must show me a back-handspring, a cartwheel, a round-off and a layout, and I will pick the top seven to make it onto the team. Got it?"_

_All the girls nodded simultaneously again. The coach motioned to a high school student on the field, probably volunteering to help at tryouts. The tall, red-head girl rushed over and whispered something to her. The teen nodded and ran to the other side of the field._

"_Okay, Stephanie is going to play the music over the loud speaker in a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, you guys can warm-up or practice. I'll tell you when to get in your places," said Coach Woods._

_Kim and Grace started stretching their whole body so they could be ready for the dance. They noticed some girls practicing the dance, and others doing herkies and handsprings, some of them failing miserably. But, the two of them just patiently stretched, not wanting to show what they can do before the actual tryout time._

_Finally, a loud voice boomed over the field's speaker system, "This is Stephanie. Testing 1, 2."_

"_Okay girls! Get in your places!" yelled Coach Woods. Everyone shuffled into their assigned spots. Apparently, Coach Woods and Stephanie had walkie-talkies, and the coach cued the red-head to start the music._

_Grace felt a familiar rush when she heard the song that Kim and her practiced to countless of times. _It's only a tryout. Don't panic. _She closed her eyes and waited in the starting pose while she waited for the cue to start. Finally, she heard it. Time to start. _

5, 6, 7, 8,pump, stretch, step back, turn, push, cross, open arms. _Grace did each move with quick precision and determination. _Jump, open clap, head swing down, spin, cross, hands on hip, clap, clap._ Sweat started pouring down the girl's back, and she snapped her eyes shut. _Stretch, step forward, turn to side, snap, swing arms, clap, clap, open clap and finish. _The brunette girl smiled broadly as she completed the routine without a flaw. She glanced at her best friend a couple of feet beside her, and could tell from the identical smile on Kim's face that she nailed it too. Now, they just had wait for the coach's verdict._

"_Okay girls. That was excellent, although I saw a couple of stumbles and mess-ups here and there. I'm going to pick the top 15 girls, and in no particular order." Coach Woods glanced at her clipboard, and back at the girls that were tersely standing in their dance routine spots._

"_I would like to keep Anne Suera, Hayley Wilson, Katrina Hendry, Sierra Coleman, Joanne Doyle, Victoria McCallum, Grace O'Doherty," Grace smiled excitedly and cast a very tense Kim a reassuring glance, "Riley Mae Rolier, Dakota Harris, Juliette Hall, Samantha Allen, Kimberly Crawford," Kim sighed in relief and the BFFs smiled excitedly at each other, tuning out the last three names. _

_After the cuts were made for round one, all the other girls who weren't named left, either crying or disappointed. _

_Coach Woods turned to the remaining 15 girls with a serious face, "If you want to get on the team, you've got to work for it, okay? Don't start slacking off because you made it to round two." She glanced at her clipboard again, "Now we will do individual jumps. Each of you must show me a herkie, a toe-touch, and a pike. We will go in alphabetical – wait, no backwards alphabetical order. First up is Hayley Wilson. All the rest of you sit on the sidelines."_

_Hayley stepped up, a rather short dirty-blonde haired girl. As the 14 others watched from the sidelines, she executed a perfect herkie, okay-ish toe-touch, and a decent pike._

"_I think she's probably going to be keeper," whispered Kim to Grace. The brunette just shrugged, "We may never know. It just depends on how the others do."_

_They watched through a couple of people (Riley Mae totally messed-up her toe-touch). Then, Grace was called. While a reassuring thumbs-up from Kim, she approached Coach Woods. With a deep breath, she jumped up, left leg bent and tucked under her, right leg straight out in front of her with one arm on her hip, the other one in the air. As she landed and stood up, she received an approving smile from Kim; however the coach's face was as blank as a sheet of paper. Taking another deep breath, Grace prepped herself for a toe-touch. Up into the air she went, legs and arms out, doing her favorite jump of all. The brunette girl landed softly and prepared for last jump. So far, so good, but the pike was her least favorite and her worst. Grace launched herself into the air, bring her legs forward and up, together and her arms forward as well, and landed, arms bent tightly to keep her balance. She burst out in a huge grin. In her opinion, she thought that her jumps were some of her best today. With a quick "thank you" to the coach, she sat down next to Kim, who gave her a huge bear hug._

"_I knew you could do it!" whisper-yelled Kim, "Great pike!"_

"_Thanks," said Grace still smiling from her success. Time crawled after that, or at least for Grace. When it was finally Kim's turn, Grace was about to fall asleep. But, she didn't forget to encourage her best friend, who looked pretty nervous._

_But Kim's jumps were far from horrible; they were flawless, nearly perfect. Once she finished her pike, she sat down next to Grace and asked, "How did I do?"_

_The brunette looked at her best friend. "You did perfect!"_

"_Thanks," blushed Kim, and the BFFs sat and watched the rest of the girls finish their jumps. _

_Finally, after a long, agonizing wait, the coach called all the girls trying out to gather around her. "Well," said Coach Woods, "I will list the ten girls who will move on to round three in no particular order, okay?" _

_The fifteen of them all nodded apprehensively and Kim and Grace exchanged anxious looks._

"_Hayley Wilson, Katrina Hendry, Sierra Coleman, Victoria McCallum, Kimberly Crawford," Kim smiled, relieved as she heard her name being called, "Dakota Harris, Juliette Hall, Samantha Allen, Grace O'Doherty, and Jenna Stone," said the coach, and soon some girls were jumping up and down with excitement while other stumbled off the field dejectedly. _

"_You ten are the finalists, and only seven of you will make it on to the Wildcats, got it? So give me your best in the tumbling part and try to really impress me," said the coach, giving her final pep talk for the tryouts, "This will go exactly the same as the jumps, but this time it will be forward alphabetical order. First up is Samantha Allen."_

_A tall, stick-skinny blonde girl stepped forward while everyone else stepped off into the stands, much like before. Time seemed to fly, and in no time it was Kim's turn. With a nervous, shaky breath and a good-luck hug from Grace, she set off to do her back-handspring, cartwheel, round-off and layout all in a row, which was how Kim and Grace were taught to do things. The blonde went soaring through the air, doing the tumbling with quick precision. As she stuck the landing and finished perfectly, a huge smile broke out on her face, and Grace gave her a thumbs-up._

_But the rest of the girls went to fast, and far too soon it was Grace's turn, and she was the one taking the shaky breath of air. Facing the coach, she mentally counted five, six, seven, eight…and then she was off, flying through her back-handspring, into the cartwheel, then round-off and finishing with a precise layout. Grace stuck the landing of her layout, and brush a couple of stray hair out of her face, smile just as Kim had, realizing exactly how she felt after finishing. _

_When the third round finished, and the girls had waited for what seemed like ever, Coach Woods, called them over for a final time._

"_So, this is the moment you've all be waiting for: the team, and team captain! Yes, I am also picking the team captain today, so good luck to you," said Coach Woods as she looked down at her clear clipboard and started reading the names, "Katrina Hendry, Sierra Coleman, Victoria McCallum, Dakota Harris, Juliette Hall, Grace O'Doherty, Jenna Stone and the captain is Kimberly Crawford!" Grace smiled and laughed and Kim's crazy antics. The blonde started jumping up and down like a monkey after she heard that she was captain. Grace was happy that they made the team, truly 100% happy, but she couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealously when she heard Kim's name being called as captain._

The cheerleader slipped her hand across the glossy pages, and slid six…seven…eight pages through the scrapbook. Time skip to seventh grade, where the pair started wearing tons of make-up, could finally get on the cheer squad for school, tried to do millions of extra-curricular activities, and just kind of…changed. As she glanced at the page, the brunette remembered that they started to collect make-up and fashion pictures, ads and articles. There were twenty or so cut-outs, all of Grace's favorite magazine clippings.

"_Do you think the dress is just gorgeous on Scarlett Johansson?" asked Grace as she pointed to the beautiful midnight blue knee-length dress that made the movie star absolutely glow._

"_Yes," said Kim as she glanced up from the copy of _Seventeen_ magazine that she was flipping through, "You should cut it out and add it to your page."_

"_But I have too many already. You have hardly anything!" Which was true, Kim's blue piece of scrapbook paper had a couple of her favorite stars, hairstyles, outfits, and makeup products, but there was only like seven pictures, whereas Grace had a growing stack of thirty clippings, that she really didn't want to have to go back through a pick her favorites (she loved them all!). _

_The best friends were in Kim's blue and green room for their weekly sleepover. Last week, they were at Grace's house and did makeovers, but this week was Kim's house, and they did fashion scrapbooks._

"_Look at this awesome room!" cried Grace as she stumbled upon a pink and purple, modern yet girly room, "This totally looks like something I would have…actually it looks at little like my room." _

_She glanced at the room she was in. Lots of karate and cheer posters covered the walls, along with some Ricky Weaver posters. Pretty, swirly wall decals covered the wall above her bed, and a huge, antique style map covered the wall above Kim's messy desk, dotted with tacks._

_Grace knew exactly what that map was for. After all, if you know someone ever since they were in kindergarten, you learn a lot of their personal secrets. The huge, tack-covered map was for Kim, and all the places she wanted to go, as in anywhere but here. She didn't care, as long as it got her far, far away from her controlling mom who didn't care about her, just her achievements._

_Normally, Grace would tell people who have a room like Kim's with a map like that their room was so mismatched, but she knew her best friend and how much it meant to her, so the brunette held her tongue._

"_So, who do you think looks better in this outfit, Lindsay Lohan or Mila Kunis?" prompted Grace._

"_Mila, hands down." _

She felt too close to the end of the precious book of memories, and quickly flipped to the last page. Grace glared hard at the last page. First week of this year, ninth grade, was that page. The week things got ugly between the two of the BFFs. It all started with the essay…and things just went downhill from there.

"_Oh. Em. Gi. Grace, the results for the Ricky Weaver essay contest just got in!" yelled Kim into her iPhone._

"_Okay, okay! Chill, Kim. I'll be over in two," said Grace into her phone from her room across the street, "I'm walking down the stairs, out the front door, across the street…and I'm at your door."_

"_Yeah, I know. I can see you! Plus you just rang the doorbell," said Kim, hurrying downstairs to open the door for her BFF. As the blonde open the oak door, she quickly grabbed Grace's wrist, and dragged her up the stairs._

"_Someone's excited," muttered Grace._

_Kim answered her without stopping, "You know I've been his fan since sixth grade. I just want to know if I won."_

"_Oh please," Grace said jokingly, "We all know my essay was better."_

"_Then may the best essay win," vowed Kim._

"_Deal," shot back the brunette._

_Kim slid into her desk chair in front of the computer, "Okay this site shows the contest winner for each state. Oh gosh, pray that we won!"_

_As the two leaned eagerly leaned towards the screen, Kim pulled open the page and eagerly scrolled down to California, automatically screaming._

"_Grace, Grace, I won! Oh my gosh, I freaking out! Look! I'm shaking!" said Kim excitedly, stick out her arm to show Grace._

_The brunette pushed her arm away, and curtly said, "That's great."_

_Kim's smile faltered, "What's wrong? Did some guy break your heart? 'Cause I would break their face if they did."_

"_It's not that…"_

"_What is it?"_

_Grace sighed, "You always win these things. Why can't I be the one to win something for once? You got team captain for cheer in third grade, favorite student in fourth grade, spelling bee champion in sixth grade, student council president in eighth grade, and you've won a ton of competitions for karate and cheer. How is it fair?"_

_Kim frowned, "Well, maybe it's because I work really hard as stuff."_

_Grace glared at her friend, "Don't tell me that I don't work hard. I work my butt off to try and be as good as you. But, no, I'm always your shadow of a best friend. And now that you joined that new dojo, you never talk to me. No one remembers who I am."_

"_Are you sure?" snorted Kim, "Now that you're cheer captain, because you finally beat me at something, all the football players have been drooling over you."_

"_Yeah, that's only because I'm captain. I'm just the pretty girl. I never stood out. I always lived behind you. You know, I bet you only work hard because your mom makes you," said Grace angrily. But as soon as she realized what she said, the brunette knew that she crossed the line._

_Kim looked at her friend in shock, hurt and sadness written all across her face. Then, Kim's facial expression exchanged and she looked like she could murder her best friend. Standing up, she yelled, "Do not bring my mom into this. You know what she's like. So don't you dare tell me that. Ever. Again."_

"_Look, I'm sorry—"_

"_Can it," said Kim, wiping invisible tears hastily with the back of her hand, "I don't want to hear your apologies."_

_Grace grew furious, "You know, I was trying to be nice to you, but since you refuse to listen, I might as well kick you off the cheer squad, as the team's captain."_

"_You won't dare," said Kim, horrified, yet with a challenging tone in her voice._

"_Watch me," snapped Grace as she stomped out of the Crawford's house._

Grace stared hollowly at her scrapbook. What had she done? The teen knew that she and Kim got into a stupid fight, but she never thought about it. But after she actually tried to remember, she realized that it was her fault for destroying her valuable friendship with the fiery blonde (which she always took for granted). Why did she have to bring up Kim's mom? That was definitely crossing the line, which was for sure.

Suddenly, the brunette stood up with a new resolve in her attitude. Today, at the football game, she would patch things up with Kim. Then the cheerleader headed to the bathroom for the agonizing process of getting ready for cheer. She had to look good after all, if she wanted to impress Jerry.

**Haha, I just had to add the random JACE at the end. Sorry to all my followers for not updating things lately…you have no clue how much homework I've had…it's insane! I worked starting at 5:30 and stayed up until 11:30 doing just homework and nothing else. **

**Just ate a croissant…it was yummy :)**

**Okay, anyways REVIEW…please!**

**~Heather**


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